Daily Wilderness News Clips

Broad swaths of western land, equivalent to the size of Colorado and Wyoming combined, should be considered "treasured lands" and managed without regard to state lines or other jurisdictional boundaries, according to an internal Bureau of Land Management document.

Parts of the document were made public via a leak earlier this year, when several parcels of land, including many in Colorado, were listed as potential national monuments under a law more than a century old.

U.S. Rep. Jared Polis is leaving the door open to seek wilderness designation for more lands in the Hidden Gems proposal in the future, but for now he is targeting areas where there is a "broad consensus" for protection.

Polis "hopes" to introduce a wilderness bill this fall, he said in a statement. The lands selected for the bill were determined after Polis and his staff held what he labeled extensive public outreach.

It's tough to visit California's Bodie Hills. Although many travelers turn off U.S. Highway 395 in the Eastern Sierra to see the well-known ghost town of the same name, far fewer venture into its rugged backdrop, which has no paved roads, no marked trails, no developed campgrounds.

"These really are the last remnants of the Wild West," says Stacy Corless, who works for a nonprofit seeking to protect and preserve the hills.

U.S. Congressman Jared Polis, whose sprawling district includes Boulder but also some of the most intensely utilized national forest land in the state, this week released a discussion draft of legislation to create new wilderness areas in Eagle and Summit counties.

Polis said his scaled-down alternative to the massive four-county Hidden Gems proposal has garnered broad consensus and is ready for legislative action.

U.S. Rep. Jared Polis is leaving the door open to seek wilderness designation for more lands in the Hidden Gems proposal in the future, but for now he is targeting areas where there is a "broad consensus" for protection.

Polis issued a statement that said "hopes" to introduce a wilderness bill this fall. The lands selected for the bill were determined after Polis and his staff held what he labeled extensive public outreach.

TWIN FALLS, Idaho (AP) -- U.S. Rep. Mike Simpson says he hasn't given up hope on his plan to create a new central Idaho wilderness.

The six-term Republican told the Twin Falls Times-News this week that despite opposition, "strange things happen in legislative sessions."

Last month, his bill to create the 330,000-acre wilderness in the Boulder Mountains and White Clouds Peaks got a congressional hearing.

DENVER (AP) - U.S. Rep. Jared Polis has released a draft proposal that would designate nearly 90,000 acres in western Colorado as new federal wilderness areas and another 80,000 acres as special management areas or additions.

The Colorado Democrat says he hopes to introduce a bill in the fall to preserve the areas in Eagle and Summit counties that people agree should be wilderness. Polis says he will keep trying to build consensus on other proposed wilderness areas supported by groups behind the Hidden Gems Wilderness plan.

New Mexico has joined a dozen other states in promoting roadless areas in national forests that are protected by a controversial national 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule.

The rule, which protects 58 million acres around the country, was overturned by former President George Bush in 2005. Legislation has been proposed in Congress to make the rule law.

The Hidden gems campaign is leading hikes up Quandary Peak and Acorn Creek on Saturday, and Aug. 19 respectively.

The hike up Quandary is 7 miles round-trip, has 3,200 feet of elevation gain, and is a relatively gentle Fourteener. The Acorn Creek hike will be a moderate four- to five-mile ramble through the rolling country on the flanks of the Williams Fork Mountains.

Colorado wilderness advocates achieved a critical milestone this week as Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.) agreed to introduce a wilderness bill that would protect nearly 170,000 acres of Rocky Mountain forest in Eagle and Summit counties, a core area of the state's "Hidden Gems" wilderness proposal.